MESH Out and About: Progression Pathways in Rotherham
Myself and Safina went to Rotherham on Monday to deliver a Progression Pathways session at the college. We met ESOL tutor Khadeeja, who very kindly let us take over her Entry 3 writing class for the first session of the afternoon. There were 15 learners in the class, from a variety of different backgrounds, with lots of different goals that they wanted to achieve. They were a great group, willing to engage in the session and discuss with me their reasons for learning English and what they wanted to do next, which ranged from working in care, to studying Engineering at university, to continuing in their career of Accountancy.
We watched videos of two ESOL learners talking about their journeys, and then mapped their ESOL and parallel journeys onto infographics. After discussing these, we looked at the ‘what next’ slides, which include links to ways that these learners can achieve their goals. One of them was a nurse and wanted ways to get into nursing for the NHS, and the other was still studying Level 1 ESOL, and wanted to go to University to study IT.
We then used blank infographics like the one in the picture to help the learners map their own journeys, through ESOL and parallel learning. They looked at the ‘Wider Opportunies’ part of the LEYH website to find further courses which can help them achieve their goals, for example a Level 3 Digital Coding course, a Level 1 certificate in Caring, or Access to HE courses at the college.
The group was enthusiastic and engaged, and came away with lots of ideas about their future, and tools to help them start to answer their questions. Please click on the link below to have a look at the ‘Progression Pathways’ materials.
